Ross to Bolinas via McCurdy

Saturday presented an opportunity – two beach parties on the other side of where we live, the first out in Bolinas, a small, quirky beach town that values its isolation from the rest of Marin, and the second at Muir Beach, some ten miles by road south of Bolinas.

The opportunity was this: I got to ride to Bolinas, and take in some new trails I’ve always wanted to ride.

The first part of the ride was pretty standard, from my house in Ross up past Phoenix, Bon Tempe, and Lagunitas lakes to Portrero Meadows and on to the Ridgecrest Road. It’s about 2300 feet of climbing to get to this view of Stinson Beach and Bolinas beyond it:

Then the fun started – riding a portion of what road cyclists call “the Seven Sisters” across the top of the ridge that overlooks the Pacific. The ridge road turns to trail at the Fairfax-Bolinas road, and about 3-4 miles past that junction lies McCurdy trail. That’s where you see this sign:

You can get to a lot of places from this junction – including Oregon, if you’re so inclined. But for me, it was time to descend about 1600 feet to Bolinas lagoon. And what a treat that was. The trail was steep and very narrow, rutted with rain gullies, choked with underbrush – in a word, perfect. As I got closer to the lagoon the path spilled across rolling meadows – and it’s clear not many folks have been on McCurdy lately. Check out this picture:

I felt like I must have been breaking some kid of law riding across these meadows, rolling through waist-high grass, startled quail darting ahead of me, the knowledge that my family would be at the bottom of the hill waiting for me.

Here’s where we met – at the Bolinas cut, which has a very robust population of both seals and great white sharks. And no, I didn’t go surfing…..

Those hills in the background, those are the hills I was riding when I took the first picture above, FWIW.

I know, this is pretty much Marin porn at this point. So I won’t add a picture of the wine we drank once we got to Muir Beach…happy weekend everyone!